


The Present Tense of Story

by Lopsided_Nebula



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005), Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Dimension Hopping Rose, F/M, Gen, I'm just having fun over here, Mystery, Rose Tyler Main Character, The Doctor doesn't show up for ages, Time Travel, but only kinda sorta, character interactions are an emphasized point, characters watch the show fic, companions band together, let rose tyler swear 2k19, obviously, some drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-08-11 20:24:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20159569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lopsided_Nebula/pseuds/Lopsided_Nebula
Summary: "Where is she?""Sir, I don't know, we still have a stable transmission but it's like theres nothing at the end of it.""How is that even possible?""Simply put sir, it's not. We don't have an explanation, she's just... gone.""Dear lord. Someone contact the Director and Agent Smith. We've lost contact with Agent Tyler."





	1. Mickey must never hear about this.

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my fic! I've been wanting to write this for ages so this is going to be fun. I do have a plan for a larger plot so there's going to more but I'm leaving for my first year of college in like 9 days so I can't say I'm going to have the most regular update schedule. I'm really excited and hope you guys enjoy reading this!

If she was being completely honest Rose wasn't a fan of the dimension cannons.

To be fair, they weren't necessarily bad at what they did. For the purpose of jumping through dimensions they worked quite well considering the feat was something even the Doctor thought to be impossible.

She couldn't deny that they were impressive pieces of human made technology and she felt a fair amount of pride about that, especially since her dad (An alternate dimension version of him at least- that was still really weird.) was one of the people involved in their invention. It was just that every other aspect of them was utterly detestable and she found the idea of trying to ride that wolf in Victorian England to be more appealing than using the thing one more time. Of course that didn’t stop her from using them. Like hell was she letting anyone else taking her place in a search for the Doctor. She was just really bitter about it every time she had to press that stupid yellow button.

When she was willing to be charitable, she would admit that she was predisposed to dislike the things due to their association with the worst day of her life which may have colored her initial opinion. Once she began using them regularly to hop between universes she shook off the association as she became familiar with the tool and she learned to despise the things for their own sake instead.

They were clunky, ugly, and just plain awful to use. The steering mechanism was rudimentary at best, nonexistent at worst. The shielding, while enough to protect from the void's basic ‘void-ness’ often resulted in tediously dangerous trips. 

This was the worst sort of danger to be in, full of constant bumps and unsteady landings which required constant attention to nothing interesting at all just the same vague lump shaped void matter. The shoddiness often meant that Rose came out to the other side of these trips feeling as though she had been squeezed and stretched through a very long, thin tube with a few loop-de-loops thrown in for good measure. She avoided mentioning that part in her mission reports. No one else had mentioned anything about it and she didn’t want to be stopped from continuing her search.

There was too much depending on this and there was no way Rose would allow someone else to take her place, no matter what Pete and Mickey said. Besides, usually the effects would dissipate shortly after landing so she didn't really see the point of bringing it up.

The one thing the dimension cannon had going for it was its ability to hone in on and track the Doctor, and it couldn’t even do that right half the time.

She was always too late or too far away or too trapped in small locked rooms to be able to find him. That one had happened far too often for it to be a coincidence. She had actually brought that up with the lab techs and they had been working on it

At the top of the long list of the dimension cannon's shortcomings was the simple fact that it wasn't the Tardis.

This was the criticism with the least rational backing but it was also the most significant one. That magnificent blue box had become a home to her in almost every way there was and she couldn't deny there was a sort of ache that came along with thinking about it’s absence. Rose missed the Tardis. She missed a lot of things about it; the console room, the library, her bedroom, that beautiful blue exterior, the way it rocked about as she and the Doctor hurtled through time and space. She particularly missed how it had actual walls and didn't leave her with the taste of anchovies and metal in her mouth every time she traveled in it.

The dimension cannon’s lack of a built-in telepathic translating system that came with comforting hums at the back of her mind wasn't unnoticed either. The dimension cannon was a lonely way to travel. Even when Mickey came on jumps with her, the trips back and forth just had this pervading sense of isolation that came hand in hand with the void. She missed… well there were a lot of things she missed, no use dwelling now, she had more immediate issues before her.

Yes, the lack of Tardis-ness in the Dimension Cannon was at the top of the device's list of sins, unfair as she knew it was. However, in her current situation there was a very close second item on that list. The list currently went:

Issue number 1: Lack of blue walls and a universe saving Timelord.

Issue number 2: The damn thing had gone missing during her jump. 

She heaved herself to her feet on a street corner in what looked like 21st century London feeling rather sore in both her state of being and her mood. The trip had been particularly tumultuous, and she was feeling particularly grumpy about that fact.

She started patting herself down, checking her inside jacket pockets and the loops on her jeans to see if the thing had just managed to get itself dislodged during the jump. Having no luck she started looking around the immediate vicinity to see if she could spot where it had ended up. It shouldn’t be too hard to spot, it was bright yellow and the size of a small dinner plate.

She probably looked like a madwoman, standing there waving her arms about, but she couldn't bring herself to care overly much. She needed to find the dimension cannon, or she was utterly buggered. Besides, this was London, everyone had seen weirder. She wasn't even getting side-eyed by the other people on the street. It was fine.

This jump had been a disaster from the beginning. Her trip over had been particularly bumpy and she was pretty sure the navigation system on the cannon had switched targets midjump, giving her some form of dimensional whiplash. She didn’t even know how it had come off, the lab would have had safeguards prevent stuff like that right?

She admittedly was having trouble remembering everything they had gone over in the dimension hopper safety briefing. The edges of her vision were still fuzzy and her head ached something awful. A banging started playing beneath her skull like the drums section of an orchestra when she ducked her head under some parked cars nearby to see if the cannon had slid under one. She decided she probably shouldn’t mention it when she got back, no reason to give Pete or Mickey an excuse to pull her from field duty again. Besides, it was -probably- fine.

She finished her search of the immediate vicinity pretty quickly, spotting no sign of the bright yellow button in the early evening light. She huffed to herself, doing her best to stem off panic quickly forming in her gut. Even if it wasn't in eyesight it had to be nearby.

Unless it had gone to the original destination and catapulted her here. Could that happen? She didn’t think so but the idea wouldn’t stop playing in her head. A lone dimension hopper just settled in the dust on some random planet. Sitting there. Mocking her.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. This wasn’t helpful. She couldn’t have gotten too off-course, it had to be somewhere nearby. She just had to figure out where it went. It was still a ship of a sort even if it was a bloody frustrating one. A ship without it’s passenger would just continue on to it's destination right? It wasn't like she had been actually steering it or anything, it was like an autopilot.

If she was right that meant that she had probably just fallen out a little before the end of the jump. That makes more sense than the cannon flinging her far away from it out of some sort of returned spite. There. All she would have to do is go to her original end destination and she would find the blasted button.

The problem with this is that the destination wasn't so much a place as it was a person, a very specific person. To find the dimension cannon she'd have to find The Doctor first.

Getting back to The Doctor her mission's primary goal so she couldn't say she was displeased with her conclusion, just frustrated. She knew from experience how hard it could be to find the Doctor when he wasn’t trying to be found.

She really hoped this wasn't a younger version of the Doctor that the cannon had latched onto. If he came across the cannon there's no way the Doctor and his irrepressible curiosity wouldn't investigate thoroughly and she absolutely did not want to have to worry about timelines on top of everything else that was going wrong today. The alien hadn’t met a button he didn’t like, he’d definitely press the thing.

She imagined the version of him with the scarf suddenly appearing in the Torchwood R&D department. No. That wouldn’t do at all as funny as it was to imagine. She had managed so far to avoid the younger Hims she had come across in the past and the idea that she might have to throw out her perfect record just because the button had decided to go on a wander on it’s own and dropped her on some random London street by herself was vexing to say the least.

There was nothing for it. She rolled her shoulders and adjusted her leather jacket before starting her search. She had to start quick. When finding the Doctor time was of the essence. Rose had had enough near misses to know that from experience. She was practically a Doctor-finding expert at this point. A Doctor-finding expert who hadn’t actually succeeded yet. She ignored that thought.

Rose took in her surroundings more thoroughly as she made her way down the city street. There wasn't any immediately clear sign of mischief or alien interference but that didn't mean necessarily mean anything. If The Doctor was nearby there had to be some sort of trouble if it wasn’t immediately evident that just meant she had more time to find it. Still, he rarely stayed hidden for long so she kept going, leaving behind an average if slightly familiar street, rubbing her head as she continued her search.

She wondered which Doctor it would be as she quickly walked down the street, still searching her surroundings intently for any sign of him or the Tardis. She had no way of knowing until she found him but she couldn't help but to hope it would be her Doctor. A future version would do for the sake of her mission but the thought of him regenerating before she found him hurt in a way she wasn’t ready to dwell on just yet.

If she actually found him. Oh. If she actually found him the need for the dimension hopper would pretty much be moot and much more importantly, she will have finally found him. She didn't want to get her hopes up too much, but she couldn't help but speed up her pace down the road at the thought. She did her best to ignore how her head still pounded every time she turned it to examine a different section of the street.

The whole area was incredibly familiar but she still couldn't put her finger on the reason why. She felt like she’d been here before. It made sense, this was 21st century London, she was from 21st century London. Lots of streets look the same she supposed, it could just be the familiarity of actually being in her home time and dimension.

She didn't really think that was the case though. This place was tickling at her memories, they were telling her this place was familiar. She just couldn’t figure out how. She winced as the pounding in her head started again with a renewed vigor. She looked up and around at all the signs, now looking for something familiar to place herself by. She had definitely been here before. And often.

She rounded the corner and saw the sign, bright and stark against the night sky: 'Henrik's', the old shop she had worked in before she met the Doctor. It was looking decidedly unblown-up. Her eyes widened in realization, finally recognizing where she was. The realization came slowly and fuzzily, with more effort than really should have been necessary to understand what the implications were.

Henrik's was still standing. Which meant that it hadn’t been blown up yet. She was here. The dimension hopper had brought her here. The dimension tracker was meant to track the Doctor. This meant… Oh dear. She really really was buggered.

~

On the upside, she had found where The Doctor was, the downside was that he was about to meet a younger version of her which meant she absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, couldn't be seen. It wouldn't do for the Doctor to see an older version of a random girl he had just met. Or for her to see an older version of herself. Who knows how they would react. Rose was not doing any timeline interference if she could help it.

Still, she couldn't help but be disappointed. She had really hoped this would it.

Well, no use sitting around crying about it. She still needed to find her dimension cannon after all and to top it off she had to make sure she wasn't spotted at the same time.

She was not telling Mickey about this. It was bad enough she had managed to be the first person to lose their dimension cannon, she also had to go and do it in the worst scenario possible.

She stood there in the shadows of an alley, trying to decide where the dimension cannon was most likely to have landed and keeping an eye out for signs of her younger self, though she was pretty sure she still had a fair amount of time left. The sky was barely dark and if she remembered correctly she had been slow closing up that night. That gave her a bit of wiggle room.

Now she had to decide if the Dimension Cannon was more likely to have followed the Doctor or the Tardis.

She had asked this question before but the scientists at Pete's Torchwood were never able to say for certain. The dimension cannon scanned for signs of Timelords but she had allowed them to use her Tardis key to properly calibrate the scans so it could honestly have gone either way. The two of them were never far apart for long and the cannon was so imprecise that it never seemed to tend towards one or the other. 

The Tardis would be easier to check but the Doctor would be easier to find. Additionally, seeing if it had been drawn to the Doctor could be a more time sensitive endeavor, The buttons were pretty sturdy but digging it out of the rubble would be a major pain. It was all depending on how accurate the button had managed to be this time.

If past performance was anything to go by the answer was going to be 'not very'. She decided to check Henrik’s first. She could do a sweep through the upper part of the building if she was quick. There was no point if it was in the basement. The Doctor would have probably already have found it. She’d just have to trust how shit the aim on the thing was.

Before she could even think about acting on this decision a click echoed out right behind her ear.

"Don't move."

An American voice spoke clearly and levelly behind her with a gruff seriousness that made it clear he meant business.

Oh bollocks. She was being mugged. Somehow someone had managed to creep up behind her while she had been planning. She was definitely not telling Mickey about this. The whole thing was just embarrassing at this point.

"Alright mate."

She spoke softly, not wanting to provoke the man.

"Here's what's going to happen. You're going to raise your hands above your head- slowly and turn around- also slowly..."

The man sounded vaguely pained at his awkward wording but he got over it quickly and was still very level for the most part. His words were staccato, quick and hard in his mouth.

She nodded her head and started following the instructions, careful not to have any sudden movements. She bit back a small giggle at the phrasing mess-up and the pure ridiculousness of the situation. She turned to look into deadly serious eyes and she no longer felt the need to giggle. She was too shocked.

"Now, you're going to tell me who the hell you actually are and why you look like that because I don't really appreciate when people use my friend's faces without permission. I'm picky like that."

He looked angrier than she had ever seen him. She just stared, incredulous, because what? This did not make sense at all.

"Jack?"

_ End chapter _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh ho! Did I leave you in suspense? Do you have questions? What do you think is happening? It shouldn't be too awfully long for the next chapter, it's already written I just need to go through and do some thorough editing. And by thorough I do mean thorough! I did it with this chapter today and it ended up adding an additional 850 words. I also want to wait till i have a complete rough draft for chapter 3 before I post chapter 2 which may take a bit longer. 
> 
> I don't actually know how many chapters I will have. I currently have 7 outlined and a bunch more planned for. I just guessed 21 cause it seemed big. It might change later.


	2. Explosive Reunion (Get it?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack couldn't say this was how he expected his day to go. Rose couldn't either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I honestly didn't expect to be back this soon and I'm excited I am! Thanks for reading and enjoy the chapter!!

Jack couldn't say that portals and time pockets were 'just another day on the job' but they weren't exactly unheard of in his line of work either. At the very least he had plenty of past experience -official and otherwise- to draw from when faced with such situations. The Time Agency, traveling with the Doctor, his own travels, and his time at Torchwood had gotten him pretty well used to rolling with the punches. You wake up after being speared to death a time or two and everything else seems to pale a bit in comparison.

This meant that when he suddenly found himself in a London shopping district in the early evening he wasn’t terribly shaken, though he had been sitting in his office in Cardiff about to have breakfast moments before. He spared a thought to mourn his empty stomach and the food Ianto had made him before he was off investigating around the surrounding streets for signs of oddness that could reveal the reason for his relocation.

The evening light paused his first instinct of contacting his team. London wasn’t far enough away to constitute this sort of time difference, and if the time had changed it could easily be on a larger scale than just time of day.

He had to make sure of the date, the time difference or dilation maybe, either meant he was missing some of his memory -he was dearly hoping that wasn't the case, he hated dealing with missing memories- or there was some time transport element involved as well. Maybe a time scoop?

Depending which way in time he had traveled contact could be ill-advised for either them or him or even impossible if he had gone too far in either direction. Though he doubted that was the case. He should only be a few years off, within the decade at the very least based on the people’s outfits alone. No one could mistake the early 2000's fashion sense for anything else.

A quick look at a nearby news stand told him that he was definitely in the past but he felt no more enlightened than he was before. Why 2005?

He didn't want to call in the gang unless he wanted to try and juggle the timelines, which while doable, is never fun. Avoiding mentioning Suzie would be bad enough on it's own. Oh yeah, he definitely didn’t want to call in the rest of the team.

He could save it for maybe a last resort. Maybe.

"Looks like I'm on my own for this one."

Searching out signs of trouble as he made his way down the street, he found that this bothered him more than he had expected it would.

He half wanted to make some comments to Owen about getting a break from the madness and finally having some ‘me time’ but standing there alone, on a quiet unfamiliar London street with unknown antagonists at play it didn't really seem quite as funny as it should.

The city seemed almost static, there was a buzzing at the edge of his senses that was putting him on edge. There were people around but his sense of them was odd. He couldn't differentiate it from the rest of the London background noise, something just felt wrong, off somehow. Like they were muffled maybe? Or amplified? Just a bit out of focus, like he suddenly needed glasses. He squinted and rubbed his eyes to clear up his vision, but nothing changed.

He ducked underneath a low hanging sign for a pub, Mac Tíre Dona emblazoned on it with old timey lettering, it was blocking his view of a quarter of the street. Once he had a clear line of sight he scanned his surroundings, looking for signs of abnormalities or danger. It might not be obvious enough that he could spot it at first blush, but he could hope.

It was worth a shot at the very least. And besides- whoever did this either didn't want to hurt him or wasn't as smart as they thought they were. If they were going to transport him in order to hurt him they could have just as easily put him in an active volcano or the middle of space somewhere instead of a random London street. They hadn’t even removed his gun. It was a rookie mistake.

Jack squinted as he looked around. There was something… off about his surroundings. He couldn't put his finger on it. Something about the people maybe? The way they were moving? The street seemed almost blurred at the edges. He shook his head slightly and blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision. No luck. He did spot something of interest though. There was ripples in the small crowd, right at the edge. Someone was moving at a different pace from the rest of the group

Jack followed after them, it was suspicious and worth checking out at the very least. He made it to the street just in time to see a flash of blonde as whoever it was rounded the corner. He ducked through a nearby alley to avoid detection and cut whoever it was off. He was going to get to the bottom of this, and hopefully get back before his tea got cold.

~

Jack may have made a mistake.

He came to this conclusion as he stared into familiar brown eyes with a cocked gun in his hand. Whatever had left him here was most likely what was facing him down using the face of one of his dearest and oldest friends and wasn’t showing the slightest sign of changing back.

It had left him his gun. There had to be a reason for it. There were two possibilities here that he could see. It was either out of benevolence or stupidity, and something that would dig far enough back in his past to find Rose Tyler is many things, but dumb isn’t one. There was another option he forgot to consider earlier, confidence. It believed that the gun wouldn't pose a threat, that it wasn’t worth the effort.

Whether the confidence was based on physical invulnerability or emotional connection he couldn't tell. Based on the way his hands were shaking (itsroseitsdontshootcantshootitsroseitsrose) as he held the gun tightly in place the emotional angle was already working, intentional or not.

The only thing keeping his gun upright right now was outrage that had started building in his gut when he had first gotten a good look at the figure and realized that something had the pure gall to try and take Rose Tyler's form.

It was ballsy, he could admit that, but completely unrealistic. Posing as someone that wasn't even in this universe. Yeah, that seems like a flawless plan. No way to see through that at all.

He ignored how his hands hadn't stopped shaking and the way that she said his name like she was afraid to lose the sound of it again. He couldn’t let himself believe that this wasn't what he knew it was. He knew shapeshifters, that’s when they got dangerous.

"Well, I'm waiting. Who are you and who gave you the right to take on that form."

They still didn't speak, too busy staring. They weren't even looking at the gun, like it was non-issue. That led credence to one theory of his at least.

They weren't intimidated at all. And they were right to be. There was no way Jack was going to be able to shoot something wearing Rosie's face. All the gun did now was give him some illusion of control about the situation.

At least they weren't drawing her from his memories. Jack had basic psychic shields, he would at least be able to tell if there was an intrusion even if he had been unable to stop it. Plus he had never seen her dressed like this before. Maybe could use that, prove that it wasn't Rose by using his own memories.

"C'mon, I know I've got a handsome mug but now isn't the time, besides, it's impolite to stare."

He smiled tightly, unable to inject much levity into the quip.

It still somehow managed to make the fake Rose snort, a very familiar action that would have been very hard to mimic. Either whatever this was good or…

"You havn't been concerned about being polite a single day in your life, Jack Harkness."

Or it was very good. It sounded like Rose. Smiled like her too, that way she did when things were just a bit too dangerous and she was loving it. To get this level of detail usually there was a need for a live feed of information from somewhere, like a Zygon or something, but that was impossible for the same reason Rose being here was.

He grit his teeth.

"Who. Are. You. Cause I know you can't be Rose."

She tilted her head still so confident. The only sign she wasn’t cool as a cucumber under that leather bomber of hers was the way she darted a glance at the gun in his hand. Maybe not so physically invulnerable then. Her-it’s attitude was still maddening.

~

Rose was currently in the state of losing her shit.

Jack, one of her best friends in the entire multiverse who she didn’t even know for sure was alive five minutes ago was pointing a gun at her. He was pointing a gun at her because he believed she was some sort of doppelganger and she had no idea how to prove that she wasn't.

For the most part she couldn't really believe that this was happening. It just seemed unreal and far away. Jack was apparently actually in the 21st century at the same time the younger version of her was meeting the Doctor in a soon to blow up building with the younger version of her scheduled to come running out of the building in the near future and Jack was pointing a gun at her.

Yeah. She still couldn't get past that one. She darted another glance at the weapon in Jack’s hand. It was very distracting to be sure. 

"Why can't I be? I've been doing a good enough job of it so far- it being my life and all. Why can't I be Rose Tyler?"

She really shouldn't be taking the piss at a man with a gun pointed at her. But this was Jack and he was here and alive and the part of her that believed this was actually happening was also the part of her that refused to believe that Jack would ever hurt her.

Jack looked at her like she'd said something ludicrous.

"You can't be Rose Tyler because Rose Tyler is trapped in an alternate universe."

Well, that explains his certainty then, though it raised some questions about how he knew. Damn hard to argue against too, how could she prove that she was actually herself when it was impossible for her to be there?

She was under a time crunch to do so too. She shot a glance at Henrik's. Still very un-blown up. That was good at least, but she didn't have much time before things got a bit more… heated.

How could she convince him while still being delicate about the whole reason she was able to be here. She didn't know what else to say but she didn’t really want to…

"It's not much of an issue when the walls of the multiverse are breaking down and you have a dimension cannon."

Fuck. Please let this work. Spilling the proverbial interdimensional beans was exactly what she did not want to do, they had decided to try to keep the situation on the down low until she could find the Doctor. But this was her best shot.

It seemed to startle him at the very least. He stared at her with utter befuddlement and no small bit of worry in his eyes. His gun had gone a little slack too.

Rose took a deep breath. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound she supposed.

"Have you noticed the stars going out?"

Jack just looked even more bewildered. At least he seemed to be starting to believe it was actually her. Hopefully. Or that she was non-hostile. Or that she was worth listening to for now at the very least. That was more likely. It would have to do for now.

"I. What does that have to do with anything?"

Rose glanced around her, intimately aware of how soon a younger her was going to run down this street and how badly that could turn out if she was still here when it happened and even more intimately aware of how suspicious Jack was of her in this moment and wasn't that just typical.

A reunion with one of her dearest friends and she has to convince him not to shoot her. God, he wouldn't would he? She didn't think so. Still, one has to play it safe at some point and around guns is generally a good time to do so.

"Jack. This is important. We have to move right now. Have the stars been disappearing? Has there been any odd astronomical activity? It might not be obvious."

She looked him in the eye, doing her best to convey the seriousness of the situation and very purposefully not looking down the street for signs of herself. She threw her words at him as fast as she could hoping to leave his head spinning.

Jack was frowning now, skipping past his befuddlement into deep thought. She'd seen it sometimes when she had watched him and the Doctor fiddle with the Tardis. He was taking her seriously. Good. She risked a glance over in the direction of the shop. They were closing up now. Shit. There wasn't much time left at all. They needed to move.

When her eyes returned to Jack he was shaking his head, his thoughtful frown still in place.

"No, not that I can think of."

That was good at least. There was still time. Well, in the larger scheme of things at least.

"Okay, Jack. You don't need to trust me but we really really have to move."

The suspicion was making a quick return.

"Why."

Rose glanced to the side again, trying to remember if she started running before or after the explosion. She couldn't say either way with the sort of confidence this situation required. Was that a head of blonde hair at the other end of the block? She couldn’t tell. Phantom visions of reapers floated behind her eyes. She didn't have time.

"I'll explain as soon as we move but we have to go.."

A boom rattled out from down the street. She closed her eyes. Fuck. Time's up. And she hadn't been able to check the building for her dimension cannon either. Double fuck.

“..before that happens.”

She turned back; Jack was not moving which wasn’t ideal. However he was rather distracted by the flaming building down the road. That was just about perfect. She ducked forward and grabbed his gun. It was easier than she thought it would be. She flung it further back into the alley, disappearing in the shadows with a muted clatter as it bounced off the cement.

"Fucking move Jack! We have to get out of the way now."

Jack looked like he was about to start running. Probably towards the explosion. He also looked rather put out to have been relieved of his gun. This was understandable but really quite unhelpful right now. Besides, she was pretty put out about having had it pointed at her.

"Jack. There's nothing we can do, we need to get out of sight. Now. You can interrogate me about whatever you think I am later."

She pushed him further into the alley, not even paying attention to his protests. There were more important things on the line. He wasn’t trying too hard to get away, so it was probably fine. A lot was happening right now, and she had to prioritize.

When they were safely hidden in the shadows of the alleyway, Rose crouched next to a confused-soon-to-be-irate Jack with her head craned out for signs of her younger self.

"Wha-"

"Shhhh."

She hushed Jack who should know better than to talk at full volume when they're hiding. No wonder he got found out in so many of his stories if this is his idea of stealthy. He started again, this time at a whisper.

"What the hell are we hiding for."

She didn't take her eyes off the alleyway opening. This was a shit hiding place, but it was better than nothing.

She sighed in a tired sort relief as a young woman with dyed blonde hair ran pass the alley without a second look. They hadn't been noticed. She had somehow gotten them out of sight in time. Also her younger self’s hair was kind of a mess. Not important she reminded herself.

Jack must have noticed her younger self ‘cause she could feel him stiffen besides her- and wow there was no way around that joke was there? Did just being in Jack's general proximity make people more prone to innuendo? It wouldn’t the most unbelievable thing she had ever seen, she’d believe it.

Jack shifted, leaning forward slightly beside her. She tilted her head towards him to speak, but didn’t take her eyes off herself.

"That's why."

She nodded to her younger self, who was nearly out of sight now.

"Is that..?"

She nodded still not looking at Jack. He sounded like he'd taken a cannonball to the chest. She relaxed a bit as the other her went around the corner finally. They hadn't messed anything up.

"That’s me and this is the night I met the Doctor."

She finally looked at him, throwing a cheeky grin over her shoulder. Nearly gleeful now in her relief. She hadn't interfered in the timeline, Jack was here somehow, and he no longer looked like he was interested in trying to shoot her. Things were turning out pretty well- missing dimension cannon aside. 

"This is a timeline I'd rather not mess up if it's all the same to you."

Jack nodded, his eyes still bouncing between the corner her younger self had just gone around and her, like he was trying to play a spot the difference game in his head.

"Uh. Yeah. I see why."

_End Chapter_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now's when the fun begins! Jack at least semi-trusts Rose and now they can try to start figuring out what's going on. I'm really happy to be done with this chapter cause it felt like I couldn't get it quite right, this time I added a whole nother 1000 words during editing! which is honestly just wild. 
> 
> I'm sticking with the same chapter plan where the next one will be edited & posted once I write the rough draft of the one after it, still don't know when that's going cause classes start on Monday! and i'm super excited. I've been on campus for the past week and it's been super fun! (I've made so many queer friends and I'm living for it tbh) 
> 
> Please feel free to Kudos or comment! If you want to chat I'm @lopsidednebula on tumblr and am always happy to make new friends! Though I'm currently not as active, that should change once I'm more settled in to college.
> 
> I hope you have a good day today. Thanks for reading!


	3. Without a paddle. Or a Canoe.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and Jack take a moment to reset and figure out what's happening. whether or not that's a good idea is debatable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I've been sitting on this for nearly a month and I'm so excited to finally post it! College has been great so far but it isn't really conducive to free time. Enjoy this chapter!

_Torchwood R&D Department. Pete's World._

The head mission technician of Torchwood was having a very bad day.

  
"Where is she?"

  
"Sir, I don't know, we still have a stable transmission but it's like there's nothing at the end of it."

  
He rubbed the bridge of his nose, infuriated and impotent.

  
"Use the recall switch then!"

  
"The recall switch is non-functioning."

  
"How is that even possible? The dimension cannon is linked to her biometric signature, nothing should be able to interfere with that signal."

  
"Simply put Sir, it's not. We don't have an explanation, she's just... gone. The dimension cannon is still connected to both us and her but we can't triangulate where or even when she is. When we try to connect we just get what amounts to a busy signal."

  
The tech officer spread their hands to make a ‘poof’ motion, looking utterly befuddled by the situation they were in.

  
"Is she being shielded or something?"

  
"There's no way to tell."

  
"Dear lord. Someone contact the Director and Agent Smith."

  
"Sir, what should be tell them?"

  
"Shit. Tell them 'We've lost contact with Agent Tyler. Assistance and reconnaissance required. Awaiting further orders' Got it?"

  
"Yes Sir."

  
The tech sped off to deliver their message. He slumped against the computer counter.

  
"This is just perfect. We've lost the boss's daughter somewhere in the multiverse. Fuck. This is going to look bad in the annual report."

_A Smelly Alleyway in London. Prime Dimension._

Rose craned so far forward she was in danger of toppling over, her eyes fixed on the corner her younger self had just jogged around. She was scarcely willing to breathe. It couldn't be that simple, surely something had been messed up and the other her would come dashing back this way chased by reapers or something. Meddling in your own timeline was too costly and dangerous. There was no way this all just came to nothing.

  
But the night remained still, with the only noise the distant but swiftly approaching sound of emergency response vehicle sirens, likely being summoned due to the massive explosion in a higher end shopping district and the only motion being Jack in the corner of her eye, continuing his mental matching game despite half of the pair no longer being present.

  
Good enough.

  
Rose sat back, flopping onto her butt with an emphatic 'umpf' as she tried to get her lungs to remember to breathe again. It startled Jack who she had been using as a support just before. He jumped a bit and eyed her carefully. His eyes darted to the mouth of the alley, to the corner her younger self had disappeared into one last time, and then the patch of shadows halfway between them and the alley mouth that hid his forcefully discarded gun.  
She tensed, not wanting to have to deal with another armed standoff, but Jack just looked back at her and flopped himself down as well so he was no longer sitting on his heels. He sat with his back against the alley wall. She mirrored him on the opposite side, taking comfort in the solid wall at her back, fuck she was exhausted.

  
"I'm pretty sure she's.. Well, it would be I'm… Whatever, Fuck it. She's gone. We should be fine for a bit"

  
Rose's tongue felt heavy in her mouth, her words were tripping over themselves. She took a deep breath. Looking for words that summed up the deep exhausting dread that filled her bones, that certainty that bat like figures would be swarming them at any moment.

  
"I hate paradoxes."

  
Jack snorted at that. Odd, he didn't really look very amused. If anything he looked just as tired as she did. He was studying her again, this time from under half lidded eyes instead of over the barrel of a gun. Once they got out of this- whatever this was, she was give him so much shit for that. He deserved it. At least now he believed she was herself. Probably.

  
"So if you are Rose Tyler-"

  
Ah. So this was how things were going to go.

  
"I am."

  
She really didn’t want to have this argument again.

  
He continued like she hadn’t interrupted him at all.

  
"If you are Rose Tyler how are you here? How did you get back? The Doc said you were trapped in an alternate dimension."

  
He asked with equal curiosity and suspicion, like he was willing to listen but not quite ready to buy it yet. Rose noted the most important part of what he had said first.

  
"You've seen him?"

  
There was something like desperation in her voice when she asked and she did her best to ignore it. Now wasn't the time.

But, part of her asked, sly and constant, when was the time, huh?

  
Jack's eyes softened. But only a little.

  
"Yeah, awhile back. But you didn’t answer my question, if you're Rose Tyler, how did you get back?"

  
‘If’ again. ‘If she was Rose Tyler.’ He still didn't believe her. She tried not to let it hurt. She gets it. She really does. She'd had plenty of experience with people looking similar to people she knew. Had a whole dimension full of them one short hop away. She got it, really she did.

  
It still kinda hurt though.

  
She leaned forward off the brick wall, now sitting up straight, trying to force herself into some semblance of alertness. She didn’t want to mess this up.

  
"So,"

  
Where should she even start? She had tried to explain this a couple times throughout her jumps, but never with much success and never to someone who knew her as well as Jack did.

  
"If you've talked to the Doctor you know what happened at Canary Warf right?"

  
Jack nodded slowly.

  
"You fell into the other dimension while trying to trap all of the Daleks and Cybermen."

  
That was mostly right she supposed.

  
"Yes, well, sorta. I didn't really fall into Pete's world- the other dimension."

  
She clarified in response to Jack's confusion at the name.

  
"I didn't fall so much as I was pulled into it by an alternate version of my dad while I was falling into the void."

  
Her spine prickled at the memory. The whistle of the wind formed in her wake, weightlessness, a hungry emptiness. It had been so close. A certainty, almost.

  
"See he's head of Torchwood over there and they had developed this way of jumping back and forth between dimensions because of a pre-existing crack between the two worlds."

  
Jack nodded, looking thoughtful now.

  
"Like the rift then?"

  
Rose remembered Blon the egg and the way the Tardis had shook while claws were at her neck. That felt like so long ago.

  
"Like the rift yeah, but traveling through the void instead of through time and space."

  
She scrunched her nose a bit in thought, not completely sure how well the comparison lined up but unable to think of a better one.

  
"See, it worked so that when the crack was open there was a path for the dimension cannons to follow. What the Doctor and I did to trap the Daleks and the Cybermen made that crack sorta.. Fold in on itself, sealing the dimension apart like they were supposed to be."

  
Jack leaned in a bit, listening intently.

  
"Only you were on the wrong side."

  
Rose tried to smile. It didn’t really work.

"Yeah, and with the dimensions sealed there should have been no way across. I was stuck."

  
Jack tilted his head and raised his eyebrow, it was almost challenging, but not in the cold way he had been before.

  
"That still doesn't explain how you got back."

  
Rose shook her head, acknowledging his point but not wanting to derail her own.

  
"See I was stuck. For awhile. But then one day the dimension hopper started working again."

  
Jack looked skeptical but he kept any comments on the matter to himself for the moment.

  
"But this time it was different, this time when we tested it out I didn’t just return home like we thought I would.”

  
And hadn’t that been a rude discovery. She had demanded a place on the initial exploratory mission. So certain that it was finally over. That she was going back.

  
“I ended up in a whole new dimension we had never seen before."

  
She didn't know how to start to describe how that discovery had hit, thinking she had gotten home. Finally. When everything hit her with it's off-ness.  
The sky had been orange. The air sulphuric. It had been, in a word, hellish. For more reasons than one.

  
"I came back and we tried again. And again. Each time we wound up in a new dimension, on a new earth. We found out it wasn't just a crack between dimensions this time, it couldn't be, with the paths open between this many dimensions all at once. It wasn't just a crack this time."

  
Jack stiffened.

  
"You said something about the dimensional walls-"

  
Rose looked him in the eye.

  
"They're falling apart Jack, the walls between dimensions are completely crumbling to bits and we have no idea why."

  
Jack's eyes widened and he slumped further against the wall.

  
"Ah, you're not traveling for pleasure then I suppose."

  
Rose shook her head.

  
"I've got to find the Doctor so he can figure out what's going on. I'm pretty sure he's the only one with any hope of finding out why this is happening, let alone fix it."

  
Jack's eyes twinkled and he smirked a little. The glibness was a bit forced, but she appreciated it.

  
"So it IS at least partially for pleasure then."

  
She groaned, hoping the shadows of the alley would at least disguise the blush on her face. She felt pretty secure in that she didn't think that Jack thought she was a threat anymore so she let herself flop over to the side.

  
"Jaaaccckkk."

  
"What? C'mon Rosie, you can't tell me after all that dancing around each other you and he never actually… danced."

  
Jack sounded like he wanted to use a much more explicit word and was restraining himself. She just knew he was wiggling his eyebrows at her even if she couldn't currently see it. It was infuriating. Especially since he wasn't technically wrong about this either.

  
She decided to change the subject. She opened her eyes and propped up her head to eye him, trying to look as serious as she could while still lying down, which honestly wasn’t very.

  
"So, do you believe I'm me now?"

  
Jack shrugged.

  
It felt like this reunion should be more significant. Have a gravitas or energy to it that just wasn’t present. Her head was aching too much and the situation they had found themselves in made the whole thing seem.. sour.

  
"I suppose I do, your story makes more sense than my telepathic-shapeshifter-trap theory."

  
Rose flopped back down, her head bouncing gently on the asphalt beneath her.

  
"Your WHAT?"

  
She didn't even try to hide her laugh. She didn’t want to. Once she had started laughing it was hard to stop. Tears were now streaming down her face. It wasn't even that funny, she had just had a very long day.

  
Jack joined her. He had had a long day too so she supposed it was fair.

  
They just sat for a long while in that alley laughing their heads off just down the road from an exploded building. Once they had both calmed down, they lay there awhile longer, quiet.

  
This, she thought. If she had hoped for what a reunion with Jack would look like she would have hoped for something more like this.  
Rose's eyes started wandering around the alley. Taking in this and that. There was a trash bin, and a fire escape, what looked like a rotten banana- ew. She probably shouldn't be laying here, but she couldn't muster up the energy to move. There was a larger shape too, in the far back, next to a.. Porchlight? She couldn't quite see properly, what with the laughter tears blurring her vision, the low light, and the near-constant headache that she was about ready to give up on ever going away properly.

  
Jack spoke from his spot beside her.

  
"The only thing is, if you're really you-"

  
"I am."  
She mumbled it mutinously, not willing to backtrack on this topic and still trying to get her eyes to focus in on the light properly. It wasn't a porchlight at all, she didn't think. More a different light perched on something, above a sign maybe.

  
"Okay, yes we've established that. Since you're you, that means we still don't know who brought us here."

  
"My dimension cannon malfunctioned."

  
She was barely paying attention to Jack, too busy squinting at the light and the sign beneath it to take much notice of his conversation. It couldn't be? Could it? Fuck, this was embarrassing.

  
"Jack?"

  
"Okay, while that's also concerning for another reason, I was time scooped while I was sitting eating my breakfast. That means somebody or something brought me here and I find it hard to buy that you just happened to end up here too, back in your own personal timeline, that just seems like too much of a..."

  
He was babbling, they would get back to that. It sounded like it was probably important. For now there was something much more immediate to address.

  
"Jack!"

  
She stood up. Jack looked up at her, startled.

  
"What?"

  
She nodded to the back of the alleyway.

  
"I think we found the Tardis."

  
Jack scrambled up too.

  
"What!"

  
She quickly made her way over to the Tardis. Which was definitely what this was. She would know her anywhere.

  
"How did we manage to miss that?"

  
She whispered a quick "hullo old girl" to accompany the fond tap she gave the blue paneling before circling around the Tardis, intent on seeing if she could spot the neon yellow button that had been giving her so much trouble today.

  
"What are you doing?"

  
Jack asked, sounding mildly nonplussed but not necessarily bothered.

  
She looked back up at him after finishing her circuit. He was standing in front of the Tardis, giving the box a fond if wry look.

  
"I'm looking for the dimension cannon, I was hoping it would have honed in on the Tardis but it doesn't seem to have landed anywhere in the area.

  
Jack blinked.

  
"I feel like the fact your dimension cannon is missing should have been mentioned earlier."

  
Rose felt rather belligerent at that.

  
"When would you have preferred, when you were pointing a gun at me or when we were hiding from a younger version of me? Besides, I said it malfunctioned"

  
To Jack's credit he winced at the reminder of their previous situation.

  
"There's a difference between in need of a tune up, and gone completely. This means neither of us have our own transpor-"  
Jack cut himself off mid sentence, like something had just occurred to him.

  
“Rose, if this is the night you met the Doctor, and the Tardis is right here..."

  
Rose finished his thought, the gravity of the situation dawning on her.

  
"Where is he?"

  
She stepped back towards the entry of the alley.

  
"Jack, we have to g-"

  
She was interrupted by a familiar Northern grumbling voice, echoing down the alley.

  
She turned towards the opening and was met with the sight of a shadowed silhouette with a bulky leather jacket, the streetlights glinting and throwing long shadows over his features.

  
They were too late. The Doctor had returned and was looking straight at her.

_Undefined - Undeclared_

Companion located.

Retrieval initiated.

Have a Stellar Day.

End Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooh. This is quite a pickle isn't it? The clues are starting to appear, but aren't really clear yet. Hope you had a fun time reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to Comment or leave Kudos! Come chat with me on tumblr i'm @lopsidednebula there and would love to hear from people!


End file.
